New Mexico denies ICE request for access to workforce data

New Mexico Workforce Solutions Department Secretary Bill McCamley said Thursday that he has twice notified officials at Immigration and Customs Enforcement that the state will not provide direct, complete access to an unemployment database with extensive records about employees and employers throughout the state.

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"We will not participate in the efforts by the Trump administration to destroy families and communities," McCamley said. "We want a state that we can be proud of, not a state people are afraid to live in."

McCamley says the state will consider requests by the federal immigration authorities for specific information about employers that include an explanation and justification.

"You don't go and look at huge amounts of data from multiple businesses unless you want to do what happened in Mississippi yesterday," McCamley said. "It seems like that's probably what they're trying to do here. I don't think that's a secret."

In email correspondence, an ICE investigative assistant based in El Paso, Texas, said that access to New Mexico's workforce database was needed to quickly fulfill requests by case agents.

McCamley said that after denying the request, agents called other people in his office to ask for the records. Those requests were also denied.

An ICE spokeswoman had no immediate comment and the investigative assistant did not return calls.